History

Early history

The site of today's City of Berkeley was the territory of the
Chochen/Huichin band of the Ohlone people
when the first Europeans arrived . Remnants of their existence in the area
include pits in rock formations, which they used to grind acorns,
and a shellmound, now mostly leveled and
covered up, along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay at the mouth of Strawberry Creek. Other artifacts
were discovered in the 1950s in the downtown area during remodeling of a
commercial building, near the upper course of the creek.

The first people of European descent (most of whom were born in
America, and many of whom were of mixed ancestry) arrived with the
De Anza Expedition in 1776.
Today, this is noted by signage on Interstate 80, which runs along
the San Francisco Bay shoreline of Berkeley. The De Anza Expedition
led to establishment of the Spanish Presidio of
San Francisco at the entrance to San Francisco Bay (the "Golden Gate"), which is due west of Berkeley.Luís Peralta was among the
soldiers at the Presidio. For his services to the King of Spain, he was granted a vast stretch
of land on the east shore of San Francisco Bay (the contra
costa, "opposite shore") for a ranch, including that portion
which now comprises the City of Berkeley.

Luís
Peralta named his holding, "Rancho San Antonio". The primary activity of the ranch was
raising cattle for meat and hides, but hunting and farming were
also pursued. Eventually, Peralta gave portions of the ranch to
each of his four sons. What is now Berkeley lies mostly in the
portion that went to Peralta's son, Domingo, with a little in the
portion that went to another son, Vicente. No artifact survives of
the ranches of Domingo or Vicente, although their names have been
preserved in the naming of Berkeley streets (Vicente, Domingo, and
Peralta). However, legal title to all land in the City of Berkeley
remains based on the original Peralta land grant.

The
Peraltas' Rancho San Antonio continued after Alta
California passed from
Spanish to Mexican sovereignty after the Mexican War of
Independence. However, the advent of U.S. sovereignty
after the Mexican–American
War, and especially, the Gold
Rush, saw the Peralta's lands quickly encroached on by squatters and diminished by dubious legal
proceedings. The lands of the brothers Domingo and Vicente were
quickly reduced to reservations close to their respective ranch
homes. The rest of the land was surveyed and parceled out to
various American claimants (SeeKellersberger's Map).

Politically, the area that became Berkeley was initially part of a
vast Contra Costa County.
On March
25, 1853, Alameda County was created by division of Contra Costa
County, as well as from a small portion of Santa Clara
County.

The area of Berkeley was at this period mostly a mix of open land,
farms and ranches, with a small though busy wharf by the bay. It
was not yet "Berkeley", but merely the northern part of the
"Oakland Township" subdivision of Alameda County.

Late 19th century

In 1866,
the private College
of California located in the city of Oakland sought out a new
site. It settled on a location north of Oakland along the
foot of the Contra Costa Hills (later called the Berkeley Hills)
astride Strawberry Creek, at an elevation about above the bay,
commanding a fantastic view of the Bay Area and the Pacific Ocean
through the Golden Gate.

According
to the Centennial Record of the University of California,
"In 1866…at Founders' Rock, a group
of College of California men were watching two ships standing out
to sea through the Golden
Gate. One of them, Frederick Billings, thought of the lines
of the Anglo-IrishAnglicanBishop George
Berkeley, 'westward the course of empire takes its way,' and
suggested that the town and college site be named for the
eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish philosopher and poet."

The College of California's "College Homestead Association" planned
to raise funds for their new campus by selling off parcels of land
adjacent to it. To this end, they laid out a plat and street grid
that became the basis of Berkeley's modern street plan. Their plans
fell far short of their desires, and collaboration was then begun
with the State of California, culminating in 1868 with the creation
of the public University of
California.

As construction began on the new site, more residences were
constructed in the vicinity of the new campus. At the same time, a
settlement of residences, saloons, and various industries was also
growing up around the wharf on the bayshore called "Ocean
View".A horsecar line was
constructed out from Temescal in Oakland along what is today's Telegraph
Avenue to the university campus.

In 1878, the people of Ocean View and the area around the
University campus, together with the local farmers, incorporated
themselves as the Town of Berkeley. The first elected trustees of
the town were the slate of Dennis
Kearney's Workingman's Party
who were particularly favored in the working class area of the
former Ocean View, now called "West Berkeley". The area near the
university became known as "East Berkeley".

Early 20th century

Berkeley's slow growth ended abruptly with the Great San Francisco Earthquake of
1906. The town and other parts of the East Bay somehow managed
to escape serious damage from the massive temblor, and hundreds if
not thousands of refugees flowed across the Bay.

In 1908, a statewide referendum that proposed moving the California
state capital to Berkeley was defeated by a margin of about 35,000
votes. A legacy of this ballot measure which survives today was the
naming of streets in the vicinity of the proposed capitol grounds
for the counties of California.

In 1909, the citizens of Berkeley adopted a new charter, and the
Town of Berkeley became the City of Berkeley. Rapid growth
continued right up to the Crash of
1929. The Great Depression hit
Berkeley hard, but not as hard as many other places in the U.S.
thanks in part to the University.

On September 17, 1923, a major
fire swept down the hills toward the University campus and the
downtown section. Some 640 structures burned before a late
afternoon sea breeze stopped its progress, allowing firefighters to
put it out.

The next
big growth occurred with the advent of World War II when large numbers of people moved
into the Bay Area to work in the many war industries, such as the
immense Kaiser Shipyards in nearby
Richmond. One who moved out, but played a big role in
the outcome of the War was U.C. Professor and Berkeley resident
J.Robert Oppenheimer. During the war, an
Army base, Camp Ashby, was temporarily
sited in Berkeley.

The 1950s and 1960s

The postwar years saw moderate growth of the City as events on the
U.C. campus began to build up to the recognizable activism of the
sixties. In the 1950s, McCarthyism
induced the University to demand a loyalty oath from its
professors, many of whom refused to sign any such oath on the
principle of freedom of thought. In 1960, a U.S. House committee
(HUAC) came to San Francisco to investigate the
influence of communists in the Bay Area. Their presence was met by
protesters, including many from the University. Meanwhile, a number
of U.C. students became active in support of the Civil Rights Movement. Finally, the
University in 1964 provoked a massive student protest by banning
the distribution of political literature on campus. This protest
became known as the Free Speech
Movement. As the Vietnam War rapidly
escalated in the ensuing years, so did student activism at the
University, particularly that organized by the Vietnam Day Committee.

Berkeley is strongly identified with the rapid social changes,
civic unrest, and politial upheaval that characterized the late
1960s. In that period, Berkeley—especially Telegraph Avenue—became
a focal point for the hippie movement, which
spilled over the Bay from San Francisco. Many hippies were
apolitical drop-outs, rather than students, but in the heady
atmosphere of Berkeley in 1967–1969 there was considerable overlap
of the hippie movement and the radical left. An iconic event in
the Berkeley Sixties scene was a conflict over a parcel of
University property south of the contiguous campus site which came
to be called "People's Park".

The battle over the disposition of People's Park resulted in a
month-long occupation of Berkeley by the National Guard on orders of
then-Governor Ronald Reagan. In the
end, the park remained undeveloped, and remains so today. A
spin-off, "People's Park Annex," was established at the same time
by activist citizens of Berkeley on a strip of land above the
Bay Area Rapid Transit subway
construction along Hearst Avenue northwest of the U.C. campus.
The land
had also been intended for development, but was turned over to the
City by BART and is now Ohlone Park.

1970s to present

The 1970s saw a decline in the population of Berkeley, partly due
to an exodus to the suburbs. Some moved because of the rising cost
of living throughout the Bay Area, and others because of the
decline and disappearance of many industries in West
Berkeley.

From the 1980s to the present, Berkeley has seen rising housing
costs, especially since the mid-1990s. In 2005–2007, sales of homes
began to slow, but average home prices, as of 2009 remain, among
the highest in the nation.

Though many think of the 1960s as the heyday of liberalism in
Berkeley, it remains one of the most overwhelmingly Democratic
cities in the United States. The era of large public protest in
Berkeley waned considerably with the end of the Vietnam War in
1974. One person who rose in prominence during the late sixties and
into the seventies was Ron Dellums,
nephew of C.L.Dellums, an African American labor leader. He
first served on the Berkeley City Council, and later became a
federal representative for the district which includes Berkeley. He
was elected Mayor of Oakland in 2006.

In 2006, the Berkeley Oak
Grove Protest began, protesting construction of a new sports
center annex to Memorial Stadium at the expense of a grove of oak
trees on the UC campus. The protest ended in September 2008 after a
lengthy court process.

In 2007–08, Berkeley received media attention due to demonstrations
against a Marine Corps recruiting office in downtown Berkeley and a
series of controversional motions by Berkeley's City Council
regarding opposition to Marine recruiting. (SeeBerkeley
Marine Corps Recruiting Center controversy.)

Geology

Most of
Berkeley lies on a rolling sedimentary plain that rises gently from
sea level to the base of the Berkeley Hills. From there, the land rises dramatically.
The
highest peak along the ridge line above Berkeley is Grizzly
Peak, elevation . A number of small creeks run
from the hills to the Bay through Berkeley: Codornices, Schoolhouse, Marin and Strawberry are the principal streams. Most
of these are largely culverted once they reach the plain west of
the hills.

The Berkeley Hills are part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, and run in a
northwest–southeast alignment. In Berkeley, the hills consist
mainly of a soft, crumbly rock with outcroppings of harder material
of old (and extinct) volcanic origin. These rhyolite formations can be seen in several city
parks and in the yards of a number of private residences.
Indian Rock
Park in the northeastern part of Berkeley near the
Arlington/Marin Circle features a large example.

Berkeley
is traversed by the Hayward Fault, a
major branch of the San Andreas Fault to the west. No large earthquake has
occurred on the Hayward Fault near Berkeley in historic times
(except possibly in 1836), but seismologists warn about the
geologic record of large temblors several times in the deeper past,
and their current assessment is that a quake of 6.5 or greater is
imminent, sometime within the next 30 years.

The view from Indian Rock

The
1868 Hayward
earthquake did occur on the southern segment of the Hayward
Fault in the vicinity of today's city of Hayward (hence, how the fault got its name).This
quake destroyed the county seat of Alameda County then located in
San
Leandro and it subsequently moved to Oakland. It was
strongly felt in San Francisco, causing major damage, and
experienced by Samuel Clemens (Mark
Twain). It was regarded as the "Great San Francisco Quake"
prior to 1906. The quake produced a furrow in the ground
along the fault line in Berkeley, across the grounds of the new
State Asylum for the Deaf, Dumb and
Blind then under construction which was noted by one
early University of California professor. Although no
significant damage was reported to most of the few buildings which
then existed in Berkeley, the 1868 quake did destroy the vulnerable
adobe home of Domingo Peralta in north Berkeley.

Today, evidence of the Hayward Fault's "creeping" is visible at
various locations in Berkeley. Cracked roadways, sharp jogs in
streams, and springs mark the fault's path. However, since it cuts
across the base of the hills, the creep is often concealed by or
confused with slide activity. Some of the slide activity itself,
however, results from movement on the Hayward Fault.

A notorious segment of the Hayward Fault runs lengthwise down the
middle of Memorial Stadium at the mouth of Strawberry Canyon on the
University of California campus. Photos and measurements show the movement of the fault
through the stadium.

Climate

Berkeley has a Mediterranean
climate, with dry summers and wet winters. The summers are
cooler than a typical Mediterranean climate thanks to upwelling ocean currents along the California
coast. These help produce cool and foggy nights and mornings.
Berkeley's location directly opposite the
Golden
Gate ensures that typical eastward fog flow blankets the
city more often than its neighbors.

Winter is punctuated with rainstorms of varying ferocity and
duration, but also produces stretches of bright sunny days and
clear cold nights. It does not normally snow, though occasionally
the hilltops get a dusting. Spring and fall are transitional and
intermediate, with some rainfall and variable temperature. Summer
typically brings night and morning low clouds or fog, followed by sunny, warm days. The warmest and
driest months are typically June through September, with the
highest temperatures occurring in September. Mid-summer
(July–August) is often a bit cooler due to the sea breezes and fog
which are normally most strongly developed then.

The National Weather
Service cooperative station's records since 1919 show that
January, the coldest month, has an average maximum of and an
average minimum of . September, the warmest month, has an average
maximum of and an average minimum of . Annually, there are an
average of 2.9 days with highs of or higher and an average of 1.0
days with lows of or lower. The highest temperature recorded was on
June 15, 2000, and the lowest temperature recorded was on January
21, 1937, and December 9, 1972.

Average annual precipitation is . The wettest year was 1983 with
and the driest year was 1929 with . The wettest month on record was
December 1955 with . No measurable rainfall has been common during
the summer months. The most rainfall in 24 hours was on January 4,
1982. Although snowfall is rare in the lowlands, averaging only
each year, fell on January 29, 1922. Snow has generally
fallen every several years on the higher peaks of the Berkeley Hills.

In the late spring and early fall, strong offshore winds of sinking
air typically develop, bringing heat and dryness to the area. In
the spring, this is not usually a problem as vegetation is still
moist from winter rains, but extreme dryness prevails by the fall,
creating a danger of wildfires. In September 1923 a major fire
swept through the neighborhoods north of the University campus,
stopping just short of downtown. (See1923 Berkeley fire). On October 20, 1991,
gusty, hot winds fanned a conflagration along the Berkeley–Oakland
border, killing 25 people and injuring 150, as well as destroying
2,449 single-family dwellings and 437 apartment and condominium
units. (See1991 Oakland
firestorm)

There were 44,955 households out of which 17.8% had children under
the age of 18 living with them, 28.9% were married couples living
together, 9.5% had a female householder with no husband present,
and 58.5% were non-families and/or unmarried couples. 38.1% of all
households were made up of individuals and 7.9% had someone living
alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size
was 2.16 and the average family size was 2.84.

In the city the population was spread out with 14.1% under the age
of 18, 21.6% from 18 to 24, 31.8% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to
64, and 10.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was
32 years. For every 100 females there were 96.5 males. For every
100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.1 males.

According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in
the city was $57,189, and the median income for a family was
$93,297. Males had a median income of $50,789 versus $40,623 for
females. The per capita income for
the city was $30,477. About 8.3% of families and 20.0% of the
population were below the poverty line,
including 13.4% of those under age 18 and 7.9% of those age 65 or
over. Population is estimated to have reduced slightly since the
2000 census.

Berkeley has one of the highest rates of bicycle and pedestrian commuting in the nation.
Berkeley is the safest city of its size in California for
pedestrians and cyclists, considering the number of injuries per
pedestrian and cyclist, rather than per capita.

Berkeley has modified its original grid roadway structure through
use of diverters and barriers, moving most traffic out of
neighborhoods and onto arterial streets (visitors often find this
confusing, because the diverters are not shown on all maps).
Berkeley maintains a separate grid of arterial streets for
bicycles, called Bicycle
Boulevards, with bike lanes and lower amounts of car traffic
than the major streets to which they often run parallel.

Berkeley hosts car sharing networks run
by City CarShare, U Car Share, and Zipcar.
Rather than owning (and parking) their own cars, members share a
group of cars parked nearby. Web- and telephone-based reservation
systems keep track of hours and charges. Several "pods" (points of
departure where cars are kept) exist throughout the city, in
several downtown locations, at the Ashby and North Berkeley BART
stations, and at various other locations in Berkeley (and other
cities in the region). Using alternative transportation is
encouraged.

Berkeley has had recurring problems with parking meters. In 1999, over 2,400 Berkeley
meters were jammed, smashed, or sawed apart. Starting in 2005 and
continuing into 2006, Berkeley began to phase out mechanical meters
in favor of more centralized electronic meters.

Transportation past

The first
commuter service to San Francisco was provided by the Central Pacific's Berkeley Branch Railroad, a
standard gaugesteam railroad which terminated in downtown
Berkeley, and connected in Emeryville (at a locale then known as
"Shellmound") with trains to the Oakland ferry pier as well as with the Central Pacific main line
starting in 1876. The Berkeley Branch line was extended from
Shattuck and University to Vine Street ("Berryman's Station") in
1878. Starting in 1882, Berkeley trains ran directly to the Oakland
Pier. In the 1880s, Southern
Pacific assumed operations of the Berkeley Branch. In 1911,
Southern Pacific electrified this line and the several others it
constructed in Berkeley, creating its East Bay Electric Lines division.
The huge and heavy cars specially built for these lines came to be
called the "Red Trains" or the "Big Red Cars". The Shattuck line
was extended and connected with two other Berkeley lines (the Ninth
Street Line and the California Street line) at Solano and Colusa
(the "Colusa Wye"). It was at this time that the Northbrae Tunnel and the Rose Street
Undercrossing were constructed, both of which still exist (the Rose
Street Undercrossing is not accessible to the public, being
situated between what is now two backyards). The last Red Trains
ran in July, 1941.

The first electric rail service in Berkeley was provided by several
small streetcar companies starting in
1891. Most of these were eventually bought up by the Key System of Francis "Borax"
Smith who added lines and improved equipment. The Key System's
streetcars were operated by its East Bay Street Railways division.
Principal lines in Berkeley ran on Euclid, The Arlington, College,
Telegraph, Shattuck, San Pablo, University, and Grove (today's
Martin Luther King Jr. Way). The last streetcars ran in 1948,
replaced by buses.

The first electric commuter interurban-type trains to San Francisco
from Berkeley were put in operation by the Key System in 1903,
several years before the Southern Pacific electrified its steam
commuter lines. Like the SP, Key trains ran to a pier serviced by
the Key's own fleet of ferryboats which also docked at
the Ferry Building in San Francisco. After the Bay
Bridge was built, the Key trains ran to the Transbay
Terminal in San Francisco, sharing tracks on the lower deck
of the Bay Bridge with the SP's red trains and the Sacramento Northern Railroad. It
was at this time that the Key trains acquired their letter
designations, which were later preserved by Key's public successor,
AC Transit. Today's F bus is the successor of the F train.
Likewise, the E, G and the H. Before the Bridge, these lines were
simply the Shattuck Avenue Line, the Claremont Line, the Westbrae
Line, and the Sacramento Street Line, respectively.

After the Southern Pacific abandoned transbay service in 1941, the
Key System acquired the rights to use its tracks and catenary on Shattuck north of Ward Street and
through the Northbrae Tunnel to The Alameda for the F-train. The SP
tracks along Monterey Avenue as far as Colusa had been acquired by
the Key System in 1933 for the H-train, but were abandoned in 1941.
The Key System trains stopped running in April 1958. In 1963, the
Northbrae Tunnel was opened to auto traffic.

Telegraph Avenue, which runs north-south from the University Campus
to Oakland, historically the site of much of the "hippie" presence
in Berkeley.

Martin Luther King Jr. Way, which until 1984 was called Grove
St, runs north-south a few blocks west of Shattuck Avenue,
connecting Oakland and the freeways to the south with the
neighborhoods and other communities to the north.

Solano Avenue, a major street for
shopping and restaurants, runs east-west near the north end of
Berkeley, continuing into Albany.

Freeways

The Eastshore Freeway
(I-80 & I-580) runs along Berkeley's
bayshore with exits at Ashby Avenue, University Avenue and Gilman
Street.

Berkeley's Network of Historic Pathways – Berkeley has a
network of historic pathways that link the winding neighborhoods
found in the hills and offer panoramic lookouts over the East Bay.
A complete guide to the pathways may be found at Berkeley Path Wanderers Association

Further from the university campus, the influence of the University
quickly becomes less visible. Most of Berkeley's neighborhoods are
primarily made up of detached houses, often with separate in-law units in the rear, although larger
apartment buildings are also common in many neighborhoods.
Commercial activities are concentrated along the major avenues and
at important intersections. In the southeastern corner of the city is
the Claremont District, home to the Claremont
Hotel; and the Elmwood
District, with a small shopping area on College Avenue.West of
Elmwood is South Berkeley, known for its weekend flea
market at the Ashby
BART station.West of
(and including) San Pablo Avenue, a major commercial corridor, is
West Berkeley, the historic commercial center of the city, and
the former unincorporated town of Ocean
View. West Berkeley contains the remnants of
Berkeley's industrial area, much of which has been replaced by
retail and office uses, as well as residential live/work loft
space, with the decline of manufacturing in the United
States.

The areas of South and West Berkeley are in the midst of
redevelopment. Some residents have opposed redevelopment in this
area.

Along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay at the foot of University
Avenue is the Berkeley Marina.
Nearby is
Berkeley's Aquatic Park, featuring an artificial linear lagoon of San
Francisco Bay. North of Downtown is the North Berkeley
neighborhood, which has been nicknamed the "Gourmet Ghetto" because
of the concentration of well-known restaurants and other
food-related businesses. Further north are Northbrae, a master-planned
subdivision from the early 20th century, and Thousand
Oaks.Above these last three neighborhoods, in the
northeastern part of Berkeley, are the Berkeley Hills.The neighborhoods of the Berkeley Hills such
as Cragmont and La Loma
Park are notable for their dramatic views, winding
streets, and numerous public stairways and paths.

Cody's Books - founded in 1956 and
closed in 2008, Cody's was "a pioneer in bookselling, bringing the
paperback revolution to Berkeley, fighting censorship, and
providing a safe harbor from teargas for student activists during
the Free Speech Movement and throughout the 1960s and 70s."

The
Claremont
Resort - founded in 1906, this historic site was
originally the Claremont Hotel. (The Claremont claims a
Berkeley mailing address even though the property is located almost
entirely with the Oakland city limits.)

Site
of the Clark Kerr
Campus, UC Berkeley - until 1980, this location housed the
State Asylum for the Deaf, Dumb and
Blind, also known as The California Schools for the
Deaf and Blind – Bounded by Dwight Way, the City line, Derby
Street, and Warring Street ( , 20 buildings; added 1982).
The school was closed in 1980 and the Clark Kerr Campus was opened
in 1986.